Teaching With Microsoft Teams
Given the current COVID-19 situation many Universities are switching to online teaching via Microsoft Teams. I have been asked by people how to do this as my third year class has been doing this all semester for a team assignment. Below is the tutorial notes I gave my class at the beginning of Semester.
I've now made a series of short videos to help with learning to use teams. The first introduces the interface and where things are. The second show you how to create a team and add members. - these are really all you need as a minimum - for video calls use the video icon on the posts page (described in the videos and in the tutorial pdf).
The third video explains how class notebook works via OneNote and the fourth video shows you how to copy sections from one team note book to another (this uses the mobile app because it by far the easiest way to do this). The final video briefly explains how to set up and mark assignments. --I can't show you how it looks to mark assignments in the video but once you open a submitted assignment you can provide feedback on the right hand side and if you select review/suggestions from the editing options at the top you can make track changes or comment boxes to demonstrate more explicitly where the feedback applies.
If anyone has any further questions feel free to email me (amanda.rasmussen@nottingham.ac.uk) and I'll update the information here as best I can. In addition I have created a Team for interacting with online teaching questions and I'd be happy to add anyone interested as a place to learn from each other over the coming months (again just email me and I can add you).
I've now made a series of short videos to help with learning to use teams. The first introduces the interface and where things are. The second show you how to create a team and add members. - these are really all you need as a minimum - for video calls use the video icon on the posts page (described in the videos and in the tutorial pdf).
The third video explains how class notebook works via OneNote and the fourth video shows you how to copy sections from one team note book to another (this uses the mobile app because it by far the easiest way to do this). The final video briefly explains how to set up and mark assignments. --I can't show you how it looks to mark assignments in the video but once you open a submitted assignment you can provide feedback on the right hand side and if you select review/suggestions from the editing options at the top you can make track changes or comment boxes to demonstrate more explicitly where the feedback applies.
If anyone has any further questions feel free to email me (amanda.rasmussen@nottingham.ac.uk) and I'll update the information here as best I can. In addition I have created a Team for interacting with online teaching questions and I'd be happy to add anyone interested as a place to learn from each other over the coming months (again just email me and I can add you).
| teamstutorial.pdf |
| microsoftteamsinterface.mkv |
| creatingateam.mp4 |
| microsoftteamclassnotebook.mkv |
| teamscopyingclassnotebook_pages.mkv |
| microsoftteamsassignments.mkv |
I've also written a blog about my experience so far this semester so you can get some context for how and why I chose to use Teams in the first place - HERE
I want to make a few key points that I've had more time to think about since the beginning of semester:
I want to make a few key points that I've had more time to think about since the beginning of semester:
- When students are going to use video to chat, encourage them to check what is behind them. Many will be calling from dorm rooms or bedrooms in share houses and it's important they are aware that others will see their personal surrounds.
- They should also warn any housemates that there is a video call so they are aware that they may be onscreen if they walk behind.
- For traditional lectures: it works best to use lecture capture software like Echo Engage (this is what we use for all lectures normally) the good thing about this is it also puts less processing pressure on Microsoft Teams. An alternative that I've used before is voice recording straight over the slides within PowerPoint. This can then be uploaded to Moodle or Blackboard as usual.
- If using Teams to call a large group of students, get them to turn off their own cameras and mute the microphones when not asking a question - this should help with connectivity (my laptop struggles with lots of screens all at once) and removing noise interference. You can use the front page for them to request asking a question to avoid people talking over the top of each other which makes it impossible in any conference call software.
- My perspective is that the most important thing right now is providing students with an anchoring point during the turmoil. This means instead of using our lecture time for lectures, I'll be face-to-face chatting with each small group for 10-15 minutes (or longer if they need it) to see where their progress is, ask them if they've watched the last lecture, ask them some questions about what they've been learning. They can ask me anything and I don't mind if the conversation turns to wider things if they choose to. I'll also be doing this with my personal tutees - weekly informal chats over coffee - just with everyone in their own physical spaces. Being online can feel isolating without the usual lectures where students know they can ask the lecturer something - and it may get more isolating without normal social and sports events. This is why I'll be enforcing the weekly video chats. Of course this is easier with my class of 24 than it will be with a much larger class - in that case perhaps asking demonstrators/tutors (depending on the country you're in!) to help might be a good way to maintain a human interaction.